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Ambulatory surgery centers harbor unique characteristics that affect safety culture. This analysis from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) shares results of 235 ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) participating in the Surveys on Patient Safety Culture (SOPS) Ambulatory Surgery Center Survey. Most respondents (92%) rated their organization as committed to learning and continuous improvement.

In this annual publication, AHRQ reviews the results of the National Healthcare Quality Report and National Healthcare Disparities Report. The 2021 report highlights that a wide range of quality measures have shown improvement in quality, access, and cost.

In consultation with AHRQ, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services delivered a final report on effective strategies to improve patient safety and reduce medical errors to Congress. Required by the Patient Safety Act of 2005, the report was made available for public review and comment, and review by the National Academy of Medicine. It outlined several strategies to accelerate progress in improving patient safety, including using analytic approaches in patient safety research, measurement, and practice improvement to monitor risk; implementing evidence-based practices in real-world settings through clinically useful tools and infrastructure; encouraging the development of learning health systems that integrate continuous learning and improvement in day-to-day operations; and encouraging the use of patient safety strategies outlined in the National Action Plan by the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety.

An organization’s understanding of its culture is foundational to patient safety. This webinar introduced the AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) program. The session covered the types of surveys available and review resources available to best use the data to facilitate conversations and comparisons to inform improvement efforts. 

Blame is known to limit discussions of near-misses and failures, which negatively impacts learning and incident reduction. This article describes work to examine blameful context present in anesthesiology incident documentation, reducing its viability as a successful investigation record. Length of text was identified as an enabler of blameful orientation, and limitations as to word count were one strategy to minimize the use of punitive language.

The release of the Workplace Safety supplemental items for use in conjunction with the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture™ helps hospitals assess how their organizational culture supports workplace safety for providers and staff. This webinar provided background on the importance of workplace safety and introduce the Workplace Safety supplemental items.

The issue of system versus individual accountability can challenge the orientation of safety improvement efforts. This opinion piece discusses the importance of physician recognition of decision making mistakes and the downside of the evolution of morbidity and mortality conferences away from that approach.

Health care disparities are emerging as a core patient safety issue. This alert introduces strategies to align organizational and patient safety strategic goals, such as collection and analysis of community-level performance data, adoption of diversity and inclusion as a precursor to improvement, and development of business cases to support inequity reduction initiatives.

The AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Hospital Survey Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture ask health care providers and staff about the extent to which their organizational culture supports patient safety. The release of the Workplace Safety Supplemental Item Set for use in conjunction with the AHRQ Hospital Survey helps hospitals assess how their workplace culture supports workplace safety for providers and staff. Included with the data set is a report of the pilot test of the finding.

The Veterans Health Administration is a large complex system that faces various challenges to safe care provision. At this hearing, government administrators testified on current gaps that detract from safe care in the Veteran’s health system. The experts discussed several high-profile misconduct and systemic failure incidents, suggested that the culture and leadership within the system overall enables latency of issues, and outlined actions being taken to address weaknesses.